


My North Star

by Sarie_Fairy



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Constellations, F/M, Fluff, Foreplay, Kissing, Love, Movie Night, Romance, Star Gazing, UST, mulder's couch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:14:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22829305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sarie_Fairy/pseuds/Sarie_Fairy
Summary: If explorers ever found themselves lost, the North Star, a celestial body unmoving in the Northern night sky, would help them find their way home. Mulder and Scully had spent so long in the dark, it was time they let in some light. It was time for them to find their way home.This fic is vaguely post Season 7, Episode 6 - The Goldberg Variation.You can listen to it on SoundCloudhere.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Comments: 33
Kudos: 131
Collections: X-Files Fluff Fanfic Exchange (2020)





	My North Star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AweburnPhoenix](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AweburnPhoenix/gifts).



> I wrote this for the Fluffy fanfic exchange. I got the following prompt from AweburnPhoenix (Laia) -  
>  _The telescope in Mulder's flat always makes me wonder... When would he have taken Scully stargazing with it?_
> 
> Laia, I love your writing and was so thrilled to get you. I really hope you like it.

They chase monsters. It is their chosen line of work. To look into the darkness and pluck out the menaces. Keep people safe. Safe from things most people would never believe were ever even there. Sometimes these dangers were tough to see; they didn’t always take the shape of men. It could take disappearing into the inky blackness, to make them out in the shadows of obscurity. The monsters would sometimes chase back; catch up and swallow them. Engulf them into the murkiness - down and away from each other. Stealing loved ones and loves things. Leaving them clinging to one another out of need and want and desperation. 

...

A new millennium. A shared kiss. _The world didn’t end._ Perhaps for the two of them, the world was just beginning.

... 

Mulder answered the knock at his door moments after dragging a grey T-shirt over his damp hair. His expected guest stood at the threshold to his apartment, holding up two VHS covers with a questioning look and a smile on her face. He returned her smile as his gaze tracked from one cover to the other before he tapped the video in her right hand. She nodded at his choice and ducked, unnecessarily - such was their height difference, as she walked under his arm into his apartment. 

“Great choices, Scully. Might need to turn it into a double feature.” 

She smiled to herself as she made her way to the couch, he to the kitchen to collect plates. “Dinner just arrived,” he told her, indicating the boxes on the coffee table. 

She had changed from her workday suit into black casual pants, a white button-down and boots - that were probably too high for a casual Friday night of take-out and movies, with her FBI partner. 

She kicked off said boots, tucking her feet under her as she sat down and then leaned forward to open the box by the pizza on the table.

It had become a ritual, that was turning into a tradition - their Friday nights together. No bother with pretence that either of them had any kind of social life, outside of each other. The Lone Gunmen had realised inviting Mulder over on a Friday night was now pointless, and they all gave him shit about not having ‘made a move’ on the illustrious Doctor Scully.

Now every Friday night they’d alternate apartments and take turns to pick a film. The host would choose and pay for the food and beers, the guest selected and brought the videos. They had dropped the, “what are you doing tonight?” redundant question and replaced it with a couple of simple nouns. “Horror or thriller?” was Scully’s ask of Mulder earlier in the office, on her way out the door. Thriller, his choice.

Much to the delight of Scully, Mulder got a little spooked by horror films. Before her discovery, when he buried his head in her lap through the cinematic gorefest that is _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ , she could have guessed at this. When particularly bloody subjects were on the slab in the autopsy-bay, Mulder had trouble hiding his queasiness. His resolve for the thrillers, though, passed muster. He had built his entire career around walking (or running), into suspenseful situations without a second thought. Scully sneakily walked the line between these two genres this evening - _Alien_ , his selection, over _The Shining_ \- by choosing thrillers with horror highlights. After loosening up with a couple of beers, she hoped, he might hold her hand, or hide behind her shoulder, for mock protection. Perhaps Mulder’s head would end up in her lap again.

Scully discovered what was in the other box on the coffee table. “Mulder, you got churros and dipping sauce,” she said exclaimed, unable to hide her pleasure.

“Well,” he said, making his way into the room and putting the plates on the table, “if it meant I could get that delighted look on your face again Scully, it was worth it.” She smiled up at him.

The last time he ordered pizza, it came with the Spanish dessert and chocolate sauce. Scully practically skipped to the final course, and it thrilled Mulder to have discovered something that she enjoyed so thoroughly.

She continued to smile up at him as he stood over her with his hand outreached. A look of confusion crossed her brow. She thought perhaps he wanted to hold her hand, so she began to move it up to clasp his when he chuckled and grinned, pointing to the video by her leg.

“Plenty of time to fool around later, Scully,” he smirked.

She bit her lip bashfully and picked up the _Alien_ VHS tape and gave it to him, a small smile at the corners of her mouth. “You wish Mulder,” she teased.

He turned and made for the VCR, saying under his breath, “if you only knew.”

Mulder and Scully ate, drank beer and talked through the film; finished the pizza and most of the dessert. They enjoyed movies they had seen before the most, as they could speak without worry of missing the plot. During the program, Mulder had grabbed Scully’s hand six times, hid behind her - squashed between her back and the couch - three times and dove his head into her lap during the chest-busting scene. That is where it remained for the rest of the film; Scully having wrapped an arm around his torso - holding him there as she ran her fingers through his hair.

When the credits rolled, Scully found the remote and muted the sound. 

“You okay Mulder?” she asked, humour lacing her voice as she smirked down at him. He twisted in her lap, laying on his back, head cradled on her thighs, looking back up at her.

“Cause and effect Scully. You pick a couple of horror films masquerading as thrillers and my head is going to end up in your lap.” 

She laughed at him.

“You seemed so genuinely delighted by the Rube Goldberg machine, Mulder,” she responded to his _cause and effect_ comment. “I could totally see you a geeking out as a kid to something like that,” she continued with an adoring look on her face.

“Cause and effect Scully. It’s so beautiful in its simplicity,” he said, sitting up though staying close.

“Yeah,” she nodded a knowing look at him, raising a brow and adding, “physics.”

“Ah,” he grinned at her again. “Of course. I get it. Order. Predictability. Maybe that’s why I love those contraptions so much - they remind me of you.”

She ignored his comment, though a pink hue flushed her cheeks. “So, no Rube Goldberg creations in your youth?” He smiled and shook his head. “What were you into, Mulder?” she queried, cocking her head at him. “Apart from _Star-trek.”_

“Hmmph”, Mulder sounded a laugh. “Oh Scully, I was _going_ to be an astronaut. Seeing the moon landing -- just,” he shook his head, letting his memory take over. “The idea of leaving the Earth -- I was obsessed. The planets and the solar system. Stars and constellations.” He nodded towards the telescope by his window. “I scraped all of the money I had together, between Oxford and the Academy, in ’86 to buy that telescope just to see Halley’s Comet,” he explained.

Scully got up and made her way over to the telescope, then looked through the viewfinder. “Can you see anything much from here?”

“Light pollution can be pretty bad,” he said, getting up to join her. “Depending on the time of year,” he walked over and stood right behind her. “--Venus, Mars, sometimes Saturn and Jupiter,” he explained, his voice low and breath close. “If it was a stronger scope, you could see more planets from here. Some constellations. Look--” 

Scully straightened up as Mulder lent over her, his torso flush across her back. She stayed there with him over her shoulder as he looked through the scope, moving in slightly and fiddling with a dial.

“Here, take a look. _Venus.”_ He announced, moving his face out of the way, but staying pressed behind her.

Scully bent back down and looked.

“Venus is the second brightest natural object in the sky. The moon, the brightest.” Mulder gave her a lesson as she continued to look. Then she stood up and turned her head back to see him.

“Very cool,” she told him. She was enjoying Mulder’s enjoyment more than the object in the sky.

“Did you know Venus is named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty?” He asked her as his eyes roamed her features before finally focusing on her lips.

“I had heard that, yes,” she grinned.

“Okay, this one’s cool,” he told her. She stepped aside to give him some room. He returned to the telescope, looking through and changing its direction.

“Here, Orion,” he offered after a moment, moving away from the viewfinder. Scully took his place. “Orion. A hunter and the Son of Euryale and Poseidon.” She settled herself behind the telescope, and he continued. “There are three bright stars in a row, that is the centre of the constellation. Known as Orion’s belt.” There was silence for a moment. “Can you see those three stars, Scully?”

“Yep, I can.” She looked for another minute and moved back. “It’s quite clear through there, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. It’s not bad,” he agreed. “Okay, there’s another we can see at this time of night.” He said, positioning himself in front of the scope once again. He moved the device and twisted some knobs before making way for Scully again. He didn’t tell her this time what she would see.

She looked through the scope, stayed there a moment before grinning. 

“Ursa Minor?” she queried.

Mulder’s brows lifted as she stood up from the telescope. A look of admiration in his expression. 

“Yeah, the Little Dipper,” he confirmed, now giving her a suspicious look.

She flashed him a smile, her teeth showing and pressed her eye to the viewfinder once more. “Kochab, Yildun, Epsilon Ursae Minoris -- um, Anwar al Farkadain,” she screwed up her face momentarily before continuing naming the individual stars that made up the constellation. “Akhfa al Farkadain, Pherkad--,” she listed, as she pulled back from the viewfinder. “--and Polaris,” she finished, giving him an extremely self-satisfied grin. “Or --” she raised her brows at Mulder, inviting him to join in.

“The North Star,” they said in unison.

Mulder’s brows were halfway up his forehead in awe. “I think I just got very turned on,” he breathed. “I didn’t know you knew about astronomy, Scully.”

“Mulder, my father was a navy captain.”

He let out a deflated noise. “Ah, of course. So, you’ve just been humouring me?” 

“No, no. I love seeing this side of you,” she told him and ran a hand down his arm, finding his hand and squeezing it. Scully continued to smile at him and bite her lip. Something on her tongue.

“What? Why are you grinning like that?”

“You have -- _that_ one.”

“That one, what?” A look of confusion crossed his face. “I don’t know what you mean?”

Scully licked her lips. Suddenly coy. Letting go of his hand.

“Um, I um, I see constellations, in things. Like -- um, some people see bunny rabbits in clouds.”

“-- or Elvis in potato chips,” he offered.

“Right!” She gave a small chuckle at him, nodding, and continued. “So, I find constellations in -- things.”

“I’m intrigued.”

“Okay, she took a breath. “One summer, my father, I was maybe ten or eleven, we were on a summer holiday in Florida, and he pointed out that I had the Ursa Major constellation -- or,” she nodded at him...

“The Big Dipper,” he concluded. 

“Yes. On my back. Just below my left scapular, in freckles. He would trace the outline when he was putting sunblock on me. Going from freckle to freckle - star to star - naming them.” She lost herself in her recollection for a moment. Mulder looked at her affectionately. He gently rubbed circles into her back. She took a deep breath in. “Yeah,” she said, allowing the comfort of his touch to wash over her. “So, since then, I would notice constellations in, um, marks on a pavement, in nature, chips in paintwork. Firstly, to point them out to my father, but -- um, then it just became a habit. You have Gemini in paint chips in your bathroom, by the way.”

“I do?”

“Ah-ha.”

“And, the Little Dipper somewhere too?” he said, questioning her previous statement. “In the mould pattern on lasts months take-out in the fridge?” he joked, raising an eyebrow.

“No. Not in your fridge,” she grinned, before continuing. “You have Ursa Minor,” she nodded toward his torso, “mapped out on your chest.” A smirk danced at the corner of his mouth, his other brow raising. “I first noticed it after I shot you -- when I was patching you up.”

“So, I have -- the Little Dipper? In what, Freckles on my chest?” He was smiling wider at her now. 

“Yes. Freckles and moles,” she confirmed with a nod.

“Scully, that is so adorable that you do that.” He said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “So here?” He placed a palm over his chest, a query. “Is that what you’re saying?” She nodded. “Where exactly?” he asked, not hiding his intrigue as his lips turned up into a cheeky smile. He began to untuck his shirt. “Show me?” His grin was growing. 

She licked her lips as he pulled his shirt off over his head, leaving him standing in his living room in nothing but a pair of blue jeans. Scully studied him, looked over his muscular torso. Her eyes wandered down to his Apollo’s belt, to the patch of hair that disappeared into his waistband. Her gaze then trailed up and over his chest to the puckered indented skin of the bullet scar she left there five years prior. Staring, she stepped closer, focused her attention there, on the lighter, striated flesh; gently running her finger across it. She looked up to him and mouthed, _‘sorry’_.

He placed his hand over hers. “Scully, you saved me by doing that. You know that. And a thousand times since. I’d be doing 25, to three life sentences, if you hadn’t shot me.” She let out a breath, felt his chest rising under her hand, the comfort of his larger hand covering hers. “My existence now would feel like a life sentence if you hadn’t followed me, walked by my side into the darkness. Always.” She blushed at, dropped her head. His gaze on her was as gentle as it was intense. With his index finger, he tilted her chin up, so she faced him once again, and continued. “I don’t know about you Scully, but I’m ready for some light now.” 

He took her hand from his chest in his and brought her fingers to his lips - kissed them. They stared for - something passing between them. They both felt it. Understood what was behind it. No words, though, not yet.

“So,” he let her, and the moment go. Reached over to the chocolate sauce on the table and handed it to her. “In place of sunblock?” he suggested, wiggly his brows provocatively.

A wicked grin crossed her face. She joyfully took the container from him. Bit her bottom lip between her teeth as she dipped her finger into the remaining sauce then gently pressed it over a freckle on his chest. She let her lip pop from her teeth and then sucked it back in as she dragged a chocolate line from one freckle to another. She felt him catch his breath as she paused at the third point and looked up to him. They were standing so close, heat radiating off him, melting into her. She loaded more chocolate sauce onto her finger and continued to trace. Mulder tucked his chin and watched her drawing lines over his chest. She got to the end, took her finger off and looked at him as she put it between her lips and sucked the remaining chocolate off it. 

“There,” she said after taking her finger out of her mouth. 

They both grinned at one another, sharing a look.

“Okay, your turn,” he said, delighted.

“My turn?” She raised a sceptical brow. 

“Yeah. Your turn. Let me see it.”

“ _It_ , Mulder?”

“Your Big Dipper, Scully,” he said with a smirk.

She let out a slight chuckle, “um.” Pausing for a second, a playful glint danced across her face. “Alright.”

She hesitated for a moment, never losing his gaze and began unbuttoning her top. She let out a breath and slipped the fabric from her shoulders, nervously looking at him as she removed the garment, draping it off the back of his desk chair. 

Mulder studied her; his brilliant, beautiful partner, standing in his living room in nothing but slacks and a very lacy, black bra. His heart began to beat faster. He had noted, from time to time, that Scully seemed to have a variety of sexy bras. He honestly did his best not to stare down her top, if ever they were low enough or she leaned over in front of him. Sometimes he could see through a sheer blouse in the morning before she put her blazer on. There were times too, as was their familiarity and comfort level with each other, that with their hotel adjoining door opened in the mornings or evenings, she would stick her head out of the bathroom in little more than just her underwear. 

“Okay. Turn around,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders and helping her spin. 

“Remember what it looks like?” Scully questioned a minute after Mulder had begun to run his fingertips gently over her skin. 

“I do,” he simply replied, revelling in his permission to touch her. 

“Can you find it?” she asked, turning her head back to him. “I might have to, wait a sec --” She held the cups of her bra to her chest with one hand and slipped the strap off her right shoulder with the other, drawing her arm out completely. “Now, I think you should be able to see it.”

“Uh-ha. I think I can,” he smiled, dipping a finger into the chocolate sauce.

“I think this is _Alioth_ ,” he said as he pressed his finger onto one of her darker freckles.

“Yeah, that feels right,” she confirmed, as a shudder ran through her.

“So, the beginning,” he started as his finger located the first ‘star’ on her shoulder blade, exclaiming, “ -- Alkaid, _here._ ” Scully nodded; not sure she could control her voice if she tried to speak. He drew chocolate lines delicately from freckle to freckle over curved bones and toned muscle, creating the familiar ‘spoon’ shape of the constellation across her upper back. Relishing touching her, he took his time feeling the smooth velvety warmth of her skin, ordinarily hidden from him, beneath his fingertip. Steadying her, or perhaps himself, with his free hand on her bare waist. 

Scully closed her eyes, concentrated on her breath and each point of contact between her and Mulder’s hand and fingers. Even without the sticky evidence in lines of runny chocolate over her back, the trail he was drawing felt indelible - a permanent memory of his touch, burned into her flesh.

“Done,” he announced.

She turned to him, and he held his chocolatey finger up to her lips, sauce dripping down. She opened her mouth, looking up through her lashes. She moved her head and took his finger into her mouth, closing her lips around it. Sucking. She swirled her tongue around his digit, and he pulsed it onto her slippery tongue before slowly withdrawing it from her lips. An amorous look played behind his eyes.

“You’re dripping,” she said, nodding to the now messy constellation on his chest. Returning the same look, he was giving her.

“Oh,” he replied with interest, looking down.

She stepped into him, still holding her bra up with one hand. With the other, she swiped her index finger across a run of chocolate dripping into a smattering of chest hair, collecting the drip. She didn’t suck it from her finger, instead offered it to him. He opened his mouth and took it inside. Closed his eyes as he played with her finger between his lips, gently teasing his tongue around it before she inched it back out.

“Well, this is fun,” he said, opening his eyes and looking down at her and then to the Big Dipper drawn across his pecs. 

“Yeah, it is,” she replied, gazing where his eyes fell.

They stood, both half-naked in his living room, smiling at one another. 

“I can see one Scully. On your face?”

“A constellation?” She instinctively touched her cheek. “Where, which one?”

He cupped her jaw. “No, not a constellation exactly. Just my favourite celestial body.”

“Mulder?” she said in her practised way of saying his name in a finely tuned mix of exasperation and adoration.

He held up the pad of his thumb to her lips. “Lick,” he instructed. She looked at him sceptically but did as asked; sticking her tongue out for him. He swiped the ridges of his thumbprint across it before rubbing just above her cupid’s bow, and to the right, removing a thin film of makeup, revealing a beauty spot there. 

“I don’t know why you cover this up, Scully,” he whispered to her.

She didn’t answer him, just looked up, her neck craned, her breath held in her chest.

He turned and found the sauce, dipped his index finger into it, turned back and pressed a small dot of chocolate over her mole. 

“Polaris,” he said tenderly as he removed his finger.

“The North Star?” Scully raised her brows.

“Yes.”

“That’s your favourite celestial body?”

“Well, yes. It is because,” he swallowed, looked from the chocolate smear near her top lip to her sea-blue eyes, “because, that’s how I think of you.” 

“You think of me as the North Star?”

“Well. Not _the_ North Star, Scully, _my_ North Star.” Her brow raised slightly, as vulnerability settled on her face. He continued; her cheek cupped in his hand, “as I’m sure you know Polaris doesn’t move in the Northern night sky. It’s a fixed point that people have used for millennia to find their way home.” He drew circles into her cheek as he spoke. “You guide me home, Scully. You _are_ home.”

He leaned down to her. His face close and gently kissed the chocolate from above her lip. Held his lips there while her hand snaked behind his neck. He drew back; face still close, searching her expression.

She looked at him. Water beginning to well, captured and held back by her bottom lashes. He pressed his forehead onto hers. Their breathing in sync as they gripped onto one another. 

“Scully?” Mulder said as a question. She didn’t answer, just stayed there with him waiting for what he had to ask. “Scully, is it time?” His voice was soft. 

She pulled away from him but stayed close, one hand still holding her bra, the other around his neck. 

“Please tell me it’s time,” he implored. She blinked up at him, and the tear spilled, ran down her cheek. He caught it with his thumb, swiped it away. “I don’t want to wait any longer.”

She felt the same feeling she had felt standing at his door not too long ago after he had recovered from enough from his ordeal to be home. She stood in front of him then and told him of the death of someone once close to him. That’s when she felt it - after he told her she was his _constant_ , his _touchstone_. She told him too that he was hers. It wasn’t time, then though, for any more declarations - not at that moment. She did think it would be soon; she hoped it would very be soon.

Their time had come. She didn’t tell him her thoughts. Not with words. Just answered him with a kiss. Rose onto her tippy toes and pressed her lips to his, threaded her fingers through his hair. Pushed herself close. His hands moved from her jaw to the nape of her neck, pulling her in. Their lips brushed across one another’s. Tentative and slow. Lips on lips. Slipping. Exploring. Their mouths opened in harmony. She slid her tongue out and licked across his bottom lip, drew it into her mouth and sucked. He nudged his tongue into her mouth, licked at her. Their tongues circled; lips crushed together.

She abandoned her bra to caress his cheek. The cup fell from her breast, and their bodies pressed closer—chocolate sauce gliding bare skin over bare skin. Chest crushed to chest. He moaned and pushed his tongue deeper; her mouth opened wider. And they kissed.

They kissed for an age. The kiss when she came back to him after her abduction, the kiss after she saved his life with an ice bath, the kiss when he returned from a train car, the kiss when she lived after dying. The kiss, the kiss, the kiss. A thousand kisses, all rolled into one. 

They parted panting. Drew back, still holding on. Lips pink; blood bruised from their kiss, eyes lustful and hooded. And she told him, “it’s time. I don’t want to wait any longer either, Mulder.” 

They kissed once more in relief and joy and affirmation. Kissed until they had to stop to breath, their foreheads joining once again. Hands clutching at one another.

His eyes cast down and saw her chest, one breast exposed; chocolate smeared across her alabaster skin. His breath caught in his throat, and she noticed where his gaze fell. Scully collected Mulder’s hand in hers, then placed it over her. He cupped her and let his eyes drift closed, thumb moving over her nipple, flicking and pinching until it was hard. Her eyes closed too, and she bit her lip.

She kept her eyes closed and asked him in a whisper, “...why now? Did something change for you?” Her breath was short, fevered.

His eyes opened as her hands moved around his waist, one tucked into his waistband, hot over his smooth, taut skin.

He looked down, smiled carefully at her. “Cause and effect, I guess.” Her eyes opened, captured by his. She cocked her head slightly for him to continue, so he did. “When I was in hospital, and you came to me, I couldn’t speak, but could listen.” He moved his hand from her breast to gently stroke his thumb across her temple. “And heard what was in here.”

She blushed. Swallowed. Quietly questioned. “What did you hear?”

He moved his hand back down, placed his palm across her chest, over her heart. “What was in here.”

They stared; eyes darting between one another’s. She covered his hand with her own.

“We’ve both been feeling the same way for a long time, but fear has been ruling our choices, Scully.” He tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and continued. “Cause: knowing how you feel. Effect: me, finally telling you -- that I love you. Scully, I’m in love with you.” He cupped her jaw, ran his thumbs in unison over her lips. “You, my North Star.”

“And you are mine.” She smiled at him as comfort and happiness spread over her, filled her. “I am ready now, Mulder, so very ready.” She reached up to his face and ran her thumb across his lips. “And I love you too.”

They kissed again. Lips crashing; a passionate fervour. Pulling one another close as they began to undress each other. Clasp unfastened; bra abandoned on the couch. Fly zips and fly buttons, undone. Pants and jeans fell, were stepped out of, crumpled on the floor. Hands caressing and kneading bare flesh. 

They broke from their kiss. Panting and looking. He took her hand and began to lead her toward his bedroom. She grinned and followed. “Come on, Scully,” he said, turning back to her and grabbing the chocolate sauce with the other. “I want to show you _my_ Big Dipper.”

A wide smile spread across her face, and she licked her top lip, clasped her other hand to his as they disappeared into his bedroom.

He closed the door. Closed the chapter of their platonic friendship, both ready to start the next one together. 

They were home.

**~The End~**


End file.
